This literally kills me to say this, but Lebron James was great tonight. He scored 35 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the Heat to victory. Dwayne Wade was great as well with 28 points. Both the stars were clutch for once and were the difference in the game.

Bosh had his best game of the series with 19 points and a huge tip in at the end. No one else really played well offensively for the Heat

Paul Pierce was a beast scoring with 27 points. Garnett followed up one of his best offensive playoff performances with one of his worst, going 1-10 from the field. Ray struggled again and missed some open threes he would normally make. Delonte West had another solid game off the bench, including the biggest shot in regulation.

Glen Davis continued to struggle and produced pretty much nothing. Jeff Green played well in limited minutes off the bench. Though Rondo wasn't as affective as he usually is the fact that he played with a dislocated elbow is incredible. I say people are awesome at life a lot but for this guy it really holds true. Despite the loss I will never forget the toughness of Rajon Rondo.

Now we are down 3-1 going to Miami for game 5. Can we still win? Yes, but with Rondo's injury it is going to be extremely tough. I don't know how the Celtics are going to recover from this but if anyone can do it, it's this team.

37 Responses so far.

I said it before and I will say it again. FIRE Doc Rivers. He has several bigs on the bench and he refused to use them. Shaq only played 4 minutes. Christic zero minutes. Big Baby was in the game as a center again when he only should be in the four position. At the end they needed a big to grab rebounds. However, KG was occupied so Paul Pierce who should not be a PF was left. His rotations suck and have been all year. Please fire Doc Rivers.

Totally disagree WilllHagg. Doc is the one keeping this team together. Shaq is still hurt and Krstic is garbage. if you want to be mad at anyone blame Danny for letting Perk go. Doc is doing the best he can. If Doc had perk, and TA and Battier and we were up 3-1 you wouldn't be calling for him to be fired.

@willhaggs you are dumb! Kristic can't play defense and Shaq is coming off a injury! He is an outstanding coach and the rotation is a good one. Rondo KG Paul Ray and JO then Big baby J. Green D. West and now Shaq off the bench!

Yo get this ^ fairy tale son of a b**** outta here this has nothing to do with Doc. This happened because we miss huge shots down the stretch and Miami kept going to the free thrown line. Doc did a smart thing by taking off rondo in the end. They sagged off him and it made it hard for him to make plays. D'west and Green had poor possessions in the end. I mean what can I say, I'm exited I guess down 3-1. We gave this game away ,far as im concerned every fairy heat is partying but Never underestimate a heart of a champion. Deep inside my heart I Believe. call me crazy or stupid, but as long as we are in the fight I still Believe..!! They got the better of us, and if u really want to have a decent sleep tonight just admit they played better than us down the stretch. But warriors don't QUIT No excuses... This is the time where all the 3 yrs this team have gone through together gets put in, emotions will be mixed but at the END we keep our CELTIC PRIDE

You gotta give the Heat credit. I'm a Heat hater, but they've shown for the first time that they can win a close game against a good team. I think Boston can still come back because Miami is still capable of imploding, but is highly unlikely. I'm looking forward to Miami-Dallas Part 2 if the Celts can't pull off the comeback.

Give the Heat some credit. They played a smothering D and KG was willing to stay outside for jumpers he wasn't hitting. The space in the lane you saw in game 3 wasn't there tonight.

Blaming Doc s beyond stupid. He had nothng left to offer on the bench. Keep Perk and you have both O'Neals stting there. Krstic makes Big Z look young and quick. The trade was essentially Perk for Green come playoff basketball. Green is in over his head for games at this level at this point in his career and Danny should have known better.

As thin as the bencj is for inside play, we really need better play from Baby. Do not give this guy any long term deal. No matter if you love this guy, he is overweight and the window of top level play is short for guys who carry too much weight and lack off the court discipline. Shaq is the big exception because he is a giant but still would have had more great seasons if he wasn't overweight.

Delonte is tough hard worker and hits some big shots but not really much of a playmaker/creator. But I guess that's why we picked up Arroyo to help off the bench.

I can't stand Kobe but if James had his inner perfectionistic drive to work on and diversify his offensive game he could be unbelievable and unguardable.

Look at the numbers if I am dumb. Look at the rebounds. Tonight 45 to 28 Miami. Kristic can't play Dee but he is a better rebounder than Big Baby. Big Baby was in the game for 16 minutes tonight with 4 points and 0 yes zero rebounds. The numbers don't lie. Rebounds wins games and because of the lack of big men in the middle once again Boston was out rebounded by a team that is known for not having size.

By the way, the trouble starts with the rotation. KG played over 40 minutes. He is tired. Jermaine sat on the bench most of the 4th and played none of the overtime. We lost because of rebounds. Boston is used to scoring 90 points. However, look at the numbers again. Only 28 rebounds. In the win, on Friday we had 39 to Miami's 35 rebounds. How you like dem apples!

Bring me numbers that prove otherwise. Doc's rotations were the cause and has been for a long time. Big Baby can't jump. He is unproductive in this playoffs entirely. He is averaging around 7 points a game but yet he gets almost the same number of minutes as Jermaine with less rebounds. Everyone saw the dunk he tried earlier in the season. He gets blocked and ends up on the floor more than any other player I know. This is due to poor rotation. DWade bigger than Delanonte. What did he do. Just jump over Delonte and scored a 3. Lebron bigger and better hops than Paul Pierce. What did he do. Fade away over Paul Pierce. It should have been J. Oneal, KG, Paul P., Ray Allen, and Rondo instead of D West. Delonte's a good player but what they needed was size and they did not have it in the 4th and OT. Look at the numbers they were out rebounded in the 4th and OT. The players don't rotate themselves. This comes from coaching. We lost because of the lack of size in which kristic and J. Oneal provide. Just remember the number 45 rebounds to 28.

Look WillHagg, Doc has to lie in the bed that Danny made for him. Danny traded for Green to be the Posey 4 to play next to KG at the end of games. Green like ThomasJ said isn't ready for playoffs basketball. he gets nervoius and turns the ball over.

A much safer and better bet would have been to trade Semih for Battier who right now is leading the Memphis/Thunder game with a +12. We need wily vets. Btw Houston would have given us Battier for Semih. Houston ended up settling for Memphis's offer even though that meant they had to take Thabeet's bad contract (who they promptly sent to the D-League).

I will say that J O'Neal maybe should play more mins but we're not privy to injuries. maybe Doc is playing him as much as he can and if he plays him more he'll be useless like Shaq has become.

Doc has been a fantastic coach for the C's. Give him the benefit of the doubt please.

By the way, for the ThomsJ. You are the one that is not so bright. Go look it up. Kristic has better regular season numbers than Big Z. Kristic averages around 9 points 5 rebounds a game while Big Z only 5 points and 4 rebounds. Clearly an advantage over Big Z. Please look up facts before you post.

I like doc but i am totally agreeing with WillHagg! Terrible possessions in the fourth. Big baby is useless against the athletic heat. WE HAVE TO STAY BIG AGAINST THEM! WHERE WAS SHAQ AND JERMAINE IN THE 4 & 5 QUARTERS? He got to play them more, even Kristic!

And what was that shit on the last shot of the fourth! KG AND RAY KNOW WHERE PAUL WANTS TO SHOOT! THEY HAVE RAN THIS PLAY 1,000 TIMES ! yet they look like they never ran that play before in their lives. SMMFH!

I think they were tired. 3 of the Celtics played over 40 minutes and Rondo and J. Oneal were not any of the 3. This is where rotations come in. With fresh legs off the bench earlier in the 4th this game may have never gone in OT in the first place. I am not disappointed but hopeful that the Cee's will get a win on Wednesday.

Hope the errors are addressed Wed so if it is going to be a loss well lets not get blown out. Make the Heat work for it. Lets have the Celtics go out in style. The challenges are too daunting for this banged up team for it to be a 7 game series. The next question is what happens to this roster for next year?

Well a couple things kind of came to mind after the loss tonight. First was when I went on facebook and everyone is attacking Rondo for the missed layup when the guy is out there playing with one arm. To me, yea ok he missed the shot and it would've been big, but at the same time we never win game 3 if he doesn't have that gutsy performance. Second thing for me was that you can't question these guys' hearts. They just don't quit out there, sometimes they look down but they never quit they have pride. I'll be surprised if they go down to Miami on wednesday and lay an egg like the Lakers did the other day. I just think there's too much pride on this team.

I'll be proud of this team no matter what. To be a fan you don't just support the team in the good times, you support them in the tough times too even if it's hard. I've been a fan all my life and I don't take any of these guys for granted because I know the big 3's time in the league is quickly closing on them. I think Ray could play and be solid until he's 40 but Pierce just doesn't have the legs anymore that he once had. You could see that Pierce was just gassed at the end same thing with KG.

The main thing for me is that we go down there on Wednesday and take that game for our pride's sake. Crazy stuff happens in sports, nothing is a definite and who knows, they win game 5, come back home and refuse to lose at home, all of the sudden we have a game 7. After the 2004 ALCS there's no way I'll throw in the towel before it's over. We owe it to the team anyways to stick with them til the end. Especially after bringing it home in 2008 the way they did, against who they had to beat, this core of guys deserves our full support til the end.

JR said...Totally disagree WilllHagg. Doc is the one keeping this team together. May 9, 2011 10:31 PM------------------------

I completely agree. I was actually having this same conversation with someone earlier who was scapegoating Doc for the last iso play that was drawn up for Pierce. I just feel like that's a shot he's hit a million times and he's won games for us a ton of times like that before, or tied the game up at the end of regulation. Doc shows he believes in these guys and he's the one who did that trip to Rome in 2007-2008 when the big 3 got together, that brought the whole team together.

These guys have heart out there. I don't know that another coach could really deal with those types of personalities effectively. On top of all that, people seem to forget that Doc was the one that believed in Rondo to be this team's point guard and he was riding him in practice every day to get better. He deserves a ton of credit in Rondo's development.

Willhagg, criticizing my comment about Krstic just shows you don't get it. Me saying Big Z looks better isn't about their regular season stats, it was about making a point of how useless Krstic is in a series at this level. Big Z is a corpse but he can hit the open shot, tip in shit and even block a shot all without jumping. He is useful when surrounded by 9 better athletes, which Krstic is not.

And if you think ANY other coach would be going farther with this roster Doc has to work with, you don't have a clue and just want to hate on Doc.

I agree with WillHagg because it is not the offense that is the problem. The rotation on the Defense is the problem. Doc may keep the team together but it is a sad day when taller and faster players are matched with shorter players. I have played and seen many games myself and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that shorter players have to be quicker and better. However, this is not a scapegoat issue. It's the ability to switch in the correct players when needed.

As far as dealing with personalities there are many coaches that come to mind: Thibodeau, Riley, John Thompson, Phil Jackson, etc. Doc is a rare breed however, I feel his time is up. There are so many years that you can make excuses. One year someone was hurt. Another year someone else is hurt. Tonight was a case of the rotation. The numbers do not lie. Maybe not fire doc but its definite we got beat on the boards due to lack of size. There were other factors but this was the determining one at the end.

ThomasJ. I am speaking on behalf of WillHagg. It's not criticizing when the numbers are there. Kristic right now would be a heck of lot better at grabbing boards than Big Baby who somohow manages to be play in every game. Once again look at Kristic numbers and abilities. He is strictly offense. Tell me what did Big Baby do on the court that was so spectacular in the playoffs. You say Kristic is usuless then play him. He has been on the bench most of the playoffs but yet he has proven to be valuable on offense and grabbing rebounds. There is one game this season in which he had 14 rebounds. Big Baby has never had a 14 rebound game.

You keep saying the that no one else can do it. Yes they can. Doc is good but not great. He is not the only coach that has won championships. Willhagg is just saying that his time maybe up.

As far as strong personalities look at the Lakers, Miami, New York, Chicago, Orlando, etc. all teams with strong personalities and with coaches that handle them. This is not a psych ward this is the NBA and the motto is:

How is it Doc's fault when the opportunities were there and the C's just didn't capitalize? The right people were on the floor and just didn’t execute! The only thing that I didn’t like is that KG was 1-9 and they were still going to him and he continued to miss.

Where was KG? Bosh destroyed him! Lebron did what he wanted to do! I've been tellin' this all along. Wade had still the play of the series with his take down in Game 3. Rondo can't do nothin' right now. And thank you Danny Ainge!!! xD Hahaha! You're done! Prepare to go fishin'! Can't stop us!

i agree with will hag about the rotations were not a good rebounding team and thats why we lost i HATE big baby playing important minutes because his height is a hugde disadvantage for us put in jermaine or kristic or shaq who can at least give us boards and more possesions thats oe of the big reasons we lost but obviously wade abd lebron hit big shots down the stretch and our ot execution was unusually terrible but firing doc is ridiculous hes by far top 3 best coachesin the game just wish he trusted our big men more i hate small ball

also i remember in the new york series krisitc played some good minutes on defense dont give me no baby plays better defense cus he sucks in the post hes just good at taking charges but wont get those calls against lebron or wade

i will always be a die hard fan of the celtics, always support them through the good times and bad but in this situation, they have to win 3 games in a row and that always means that they CANNOT have an off night, not even for a second. Every game is a potential elimination, i always have faith but even at this stage, i'm not sure